Author's Opening Rant- A huge massive Thank You to all of my wonderful reviewers! Thanks to you, "Leaf Festival" is now 11 chapters long! Yay! This is incredible to me! I can't believe this story hasn't ended yet! Thank you all so very much for your kind reviews!

V.V; …I fear I am getting crazy with these chapter titles now. I should calm down. At this point, the ficcie (( Ficcie ficcie FICCIE! Mwaaa-haa-haa!)) has taken over and is spiraling out of control! It's become one of those things where, this is just the way it goes, and I don't feel as if I can control it any longer. Does this make sense to you? Or…am I really THAT nuts? O.o;

And yes, I am a retarded Fox—Just like Naruto-kun!—Timeshifter is absolutely right. It's "Nii-chan" not "No nii-chan" I apologize for my glaring stupidity!

Now then: SEVERE ANGST WARNING!! I may or may not have gone overboard with Sasuke-kun's scene…I dunno. I felt it was necessary. If that's not your thing, skip over it. Otherwise, Enjoy!

Chapter 11- Pangs Of Life

When there is no one around to vent your rage upon, inanimate objects tend to be the first to suffer. Objects like plates, floor mats, furniture, and walls—especially walls. The interior of the Uchiha estate was slowly beginning to resemble an ancient battleground as Sasuke tore at every and anything he could get his hands on. Furniture went toppling over, doors were wrenched free of their hinges, and there were so many holes in the walls from his fists that it really did look as if a war had been fought there. The fight with Naruto yesterday had disturbed him so greatly that he hadn't even bothered cleaning himself up, or bandaging a few of his wounds. Not that Sasuke was dragging himself on the floor, but he was in about the same sorry state as Naruto. The Uchiha had a very distinguished black bruise around his right eye, so large that the bruise even covered a section of his nose. His lip was split wide open and bleeding, and his ankle was aching terribly, either broken or severely twisted. In addition to that, he was cut up, bloody, aching all over and tired. But despite all of this, he had gone straight home, sat in complete darkness for a good long while, then went berserk on his own house. He hadn't even slept since the other night.

"That damned Naruto…" his thoughts were murderous as he struggled to tear another door out of its frame, "…what the hell does he know about me?! NOTHING!! He has no right to open his goddamn mouth! That spoiled little brat!" The door unhinged at last, and Sasuke gave it a toss straight at a wall. There was a loud crash as the door left yet another gouge on the already pot-marked wall, and then silence, save for Sasuke's own panting. He had been destroying his house for however many hours non stop, and was beginning to wear down from the effort.

But each time he stopped, even for the briefest of moments, that voice crept right back into his mind, "You…your heart. It will never heal…if you won't let it."

"SHUT UP!" a dresser went flying across the room, the contents of the draws spilling out all over the floor as the dresser collided with another wall. Why was Sakura's voice haunting him like this? It kept echoing in the back of his head, as if trying to remind him of some degree of guilt, and it was driving him nuts. The wall closest to him became his punching bag again; already sore knuckles easily breaking through the wooden surface. His arms gradually began to ache more and more, but he knew exactly what another pause would bring.

Sasuke's arms stopped of their own free will, and the second voice tormenting him spoke up again, "Hey…I don't have any parents either. Do you see me carrying on with some Pity Party?" Sasuke roared with anger, furiously tearing the wall away with raw fingers. This was ridiculous. To drive the heir of the famous Uchiha clan to this degree of madness was no small feat, and Sasuke realized just how fanatical he was acting. But at all costs, he had to drive this out of his system, fight until his body gave out, or else risk having this much frustration built up inside of him for the rest of his life. After a while, it became clear that the wall in front of him wasn't going to be destroyed so easily, and a dull ache warned him that his fingers were now probably bleeding. That was fine. He couldn't feel much pain at the moment, only a sickening kind of numbness that wracked his whole body. Sasuke had to stop again, to catch his breath if nothing else. He suddenly became conscious of some warm liquid running down the side of his head. Leaning up against the half ruined wall, he reached a hand to his forehead, flinching as his fingers ran over a wide gash just under his bangs.

"Heh…" Sasuke thought dully to himself with a wry chuckle, "Now you see…that's why we have to wear those headbands! If you'd 've had it on, that wouldn't 've happened…" He shook his head to clear the silly thought, slumping down slowly against the wall. His body simply didn't want to stand anymore, and Sasuke found himself seated against the wall, staring vacantly up at the untouched ceiling.

And again, as the silence overcame his ears, Sakura's voice filtered back into his mind, "You…your heart. It will never heal…if you won't let it." Sasuke raised both hands to his head, in some attempt at blocking the voice out. His eyes shut, his teeth clenched, and his fingers threatened to rip two hands full of raven black hair out. And then, the thoughts all bombarded him at once.

"You wanna sob and mope about your family…go lock yourself back up in that house, and don't come back out."

"Father! Look at the trees! Aren't they beautiful?"

"Sasuke-kun, I don't understand you."

"Sasuke, wash your hands before you go to bed, young man! Or else you're not coming with your Father and I to the festival tomorrow. Don't you pout at me like that!"

"You big baby! I'll bet you just love all the sympathy you get because you miss your parents! You're just doing this all for attention, aren't you, Baby-Sasuke?!"

"Not now, Sasuke. I'm trying to get your brother a good position in the ANBU. He'll make Captain one day, mark my words."

"Sasuke! Tell me what you did to Sakura-chan! Did you know you made her cry?! Do you know she thinks you hate her now?!"

"As I expected…you are my son…"

"You…your heart. It will never heal…if you won't let it."

And then, the most sickening memory of all, the voice that singularly froze his heart and stopped his breathing, "Heh…foolish little brother…"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Sasuke screamed out loud to the empty house, "Shut up, everybody just shut the hell up!!" His voice echoed off of the walls, and then the silence came again. But this time, as if doing as they were commanded, the voices did not return. At that relief, Sasuke uncurled himself and stared up again. He took in a slow, deep breath, starting to work out the kinks in his brain. Okay…so clearly, he had a lot of crap to work out. Dark onyx eyes shifted, taking a good look at the wasteland he had made of his house. Since when was he this bad…? Sasuke forced his mind to think back, all the way back to the very last time he had attended the Festival with his parents. He had enjoyed it, hadn't he? Just as he had enjoyed every festival before then with them. Was that all this was; did he just miss his family that badly? Was it Naruto's nagging? Was it the fact that he seemed like the only Shinobi in all of Konoha who had lost so much? Or was it something else?

"You…your heart. It will never heal…if you won't let it." Almost on cue, the memory crept back in.

"I know…" he answered as if she were standing right there, "But…not right now. I'm too tired…" Heavy eyelids gradually slipped down as Sasuke fell asleep right there, on the floor amongst the mess, hoping his dreams might be a little sweeter than his reality.

For the past week, wherever Shizune seemed to go, a certain white-haired Jounin would pop up. Not that it was terribly annoying, but she found it odd that she of all people would catch the attention of Hatake Kakashi. However, Shizune just shrugged it off, and carried on with her daily duties of baby-sitting the often-delinquent Hokage.

Kakashi kept his vigil on her, careful to keep Shizune in his sight as he pretended to be absorbed in his all time favorite reading material. Not that he was…shy, to say. He simply had no idea how to approach such a thing. Or much practice. Kakashi faked a stretch, watching as Shizune gathered up an arm full of groceries and skittered away. The Jounin huffed, snapping his book shut. There would be a simple solution to all of this, clearly. Kakashi smirked to himself as the solution came to mind. Women liked knights in shining armor, right, to come and save them at the last moment? That settled it. The night of the dance, Kakashi would walk over to Shizune and ask her out, saving her at the last moment from spending a lonely night at the dance. Just like a knight! Yes, somehow in Kakashi's mind, this all made sense. And sadly, he was determined to see this plan out. Kakashi smirked again to himself, leaning up against the building behind him, and again opening Come Come Paradise, but actually reading this time. It'd all work out, one way or another.

Haruno Sakura had been scanning the building numbers in Konoha for an hour or so now, trying to find the house labeled Number 345. Why 345, when the Uchiha estate was Number 72? Because, as she had discovered after countless nagging pleas to Hyuuga Neji, the residents of house 345 were Rock Lee and his father. Sakura rounded the corner of this street for the third time, again huffing as the street numbers ended with 344. Sakura was just about ready to give up her search when she noticed a very tiny hovel squished at the end of the street, in-between the infuriating 344 and 346 on the next street over. She hadn't noticed it before, how very small it was compared to the other houses around it, and how it seemed to be overpowered by its surroundings. As she drew nearer, sure enough, there was a tiny '345' hanging just over the doorframe—this had to be Lee's house. Sakura paused a moment, taking one last opportunity to stare at the decidedly small house before she gave a sharp rap on the door.

"Coming!" a voice called from inside, unmistakably Lee's. As the door slid open, Sakura met the taijutsu master's look of utter shock with a kind smile, "S-Sakura-san?! What…what are you doing here?" Lee quickly whipped his head around, oddly trimmed bangs flailing as he checked to make sure she was actually knocking on HIS door, and this wasn't some heart-breaking mistake.

Sakura only smiled wider at the gesture, "I came to see you, Lee-san. Can I talk to you for a second?"

Lee stared at her in awe, already perfectly round eyes growing wider. All of a sudden, the older Gennin turned and smacked his head full force into the doorframe, which caught Sakura so badly by surprise that she nearly jumped away. Lee smiled at the now aching throb in his head, tears of joy streaming down his face, "It isn't a dream!!" He took a moment to regain himself, smiling despite the rather noticeable bump forming on his forehead, "Would you like to come inside, Sakura-san? A drink perhaps? Something to eat?"

"Oh, I just had dinner, Lee-san." Sakura smiled sheepishly at him, feeling as if he were starting to over-do it already. All she wanted to do was talk, not have a meal.

"Yes, of course." Lee stepped aside, allowing her room to enter his house, "But please, come inside. We just need to keep our voices down, if you do not mind. My father…is…. well, asleep."

"Sure." Sakura stepped inside, smiling at Lee. The house was even smaller on the inside than it had seemed on the outside. The pink-haired kunoichi glanced around, taking note of the few scraps of clothing littered on the floor. From a nearby room, she could hear someone snoring away, obviously the sleeping father that Lee had mentioned. Sakura took a seat at the tiny table, still grinning as Lee silently closed the door and followed after her.

Lee lowered his voice to a whisper as he sat down across from her, "I'm sorry for the mess. I was in the middle of cleaning up when you knocked."

"Oh, that's okay." Sakura whispered back, "My mom screams at me too if I leave a mess."

An unusually grim smirk touched across the taijutsu master's face, "Heh. That isn't it." He noticed a quizzical look cross Sakura's face, and felt that he should explain his curious comment, "I…well, my mother is not around anymore."

"Why not?"

"Oh, she died a very long time ago, Sakura-san. And father has been something of a wreck ever since…" Lee cast a sideways glance over at an empty sake bottle tossed carelessly onto the floor.

Sakura felt a twinge of sympathy pull at her heart. But the most disturbing thing about it, while Naruto and Sasuke could talk about their pasts with faces dimmed by sorrow, Lee wore a great big grin across his face. She wasn't sure whether or not he was forcing himself to smile for her, or if it had just become a conditioned reflex after all these years. Whichever the case, she could clearly see regret shining behind his dark eyes, "Ohh…Lee-san. I'm so sorry."

"No need to be sorry, Sakura-san!" he cheerily whispered back, resting an elbow on the table. Lee would never allow his own problems to affect Sakura, unlike a certain selfish Uchiha, he thought to himself. His eyes closed into happy little crescents, leaning over ever so slightly across the table towards her, "Don't trouble yourself over it. Now then, what did you wish to talk to me about?"

Sakura folded her hands in her lap and smiled back at him, "I just…wanted to thank you, Lee-san."

"For what?" Lee blinked in confusion at the kunoichi's statement.

"For agreeing to go with me to the dance." She felt her cheeks beginning to warm up as a light blush rose on her face, "It…it's important to me. So, thank you."

"Thank me?!" Lee leapt out of his seat, already forgetting his 'keep our voices down' rule, "Ohhh, no no no no no! I am the one who should be thanking you, Sakura-san!"

Sakura smiled sheepishly at his reaction, pressing a finger against her lips to motion for him to quiet down. Lee sent a quick glance at the door that concealed his father, sitting back down as he heard the loud snoring once again. The pink-haired Haruno shook her head, bright hair swaying with the action, "Well, anyway…I just…wanted to get that out. Sorry if I bothered you, Lee-san." She was far too used to Sasuke, who would have howled if she had randomly showed up at his house for no reason other than a 'thank you'. She slowly rose out of her seat, her smile only increasing at the sudden onset of clumsiness that attacked Lee as he also stood up.

"You are far too kind, Sakura-san!" Rock Lee stumbled over a few pieces of clothing on the floor, hurrying to open the door for her like a true gentleman.

Sakura flustered at all the special treatment, "Nah. I'm really not." She stared a moment at Lee's beaming face, happy that she had decided to go with him. This would be the end of it—she'd get over Sasuke if she had to force herself. And Lee was such a sweet guy, opening doors and tripping over himself to please her. This, she decided, would be a much happier way of life instead of always waiting around for the non-existent affection of Uchiha Sasuke. "Well then…I'll see you later, right?"

"Right." Lee answered, his voice far softer then a whisper. What could be said, the little bowl-headed Gennin was in bliss.

"Oh! The night of the dance, I'll meet you around Nightfall, okay?"

"Okay…"

Sakura flustered even more at the dreamy tone he had adapted, quickly covering her face with a hand, "Uhh, right then! See you later, Lee-san!"

"Yes, see you later." The smile stayed on Lee's face long after she had walked out and left for her own home. Despite the lingering ache he had caused to his own head, he was convinced that this was too good to be true. It had to be a dream. Nothing ever worked out quite this well for the taijutsu master, not even after all his training and hard work.

Lee sent another glance at the door to his father's room, sighing happily to himself for the first time in what felt like too long.

Author's Ending Rant- MWA-HAA! Lee Angst! Didn't see that one coming, eh? I know, I know, I took a little 'artist's liberty' with Lee's background. But remember, this is a FAN-FICTION! I could have these guys quoting Hamlet in tutus if I wanted to! And what's with Kakashi, I wonder! ::Evil smirk::

And yes, NejiTen is a GREAT couple. The only reason I don't focus on them too much is because I can't keep Neji in character!! V.V I dunno what my problem is with him! I play Sasuke on the angst side, Naruto on the oblivious side, but Neji's always just…there. O.o; Don't worry, though! He and Shika-kun are still owed a few fluffy scenes!

The dance draws ever nearer! What oh what will become of our sad little Gennin in the next chapter? You'll have to wait to find out!